Trump’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court undermine justice
The distinction between walking away from the ICC and punishing those who engage with it is worth sitting with for a minute. The US was never a party to the Rome Statute, so declining to recognize the court's jurisdiction has long been its stated position. The sanctions go a step further, putting costs on foreign officials and court staff for doing the work the court was created to do. That is a meaningful escalation, whatever you think of the underlying investigations.
There is a real case on the other side. Many Americans, and not just in this administration, see the ICC as a body that has been selective in its scrutiny, chasing targets like Israel or the US while showing less appetite for pressing some other regimes. From that angle, sanctions are a way to say the court's reach does not extend to sovereign decisions about foreign policy and military action.
Where I land is that the policy trades a short-term political win for a long-term erosion of any pretense that international accountability applies evenly. I'd want to know what the administration expects to gain beyond this, and whether pushing the court harder makes it more careful or more determined. The cost question is the one that stays with me.